Our text tonight is found in
Joshua chapter 3, if you would turn there with me again. I want
us to consider two verses tonight, verses 7 and 8. Joshua 3, verses
7 and 8. In verse 7 we read, And the Lord
said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the
sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses,
so I will be with thee. Now just, if you would, you may
not have to turn the page, but look over at Joshua chapter one,
verse five. Here the Lord speaks to Joshua
and he says, there shall not any man be able to stand before
thee all the days of thy life, as I was with Moses, so I will
be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee. Look down at verse seven of chapter
one. Only be thou strong and very
courageous that thou mayest observe to do all according to do according
to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded thee. Turn
not from it to the right or to the left, that thou mayest prosper
whithersoever thou goest. What a picture Joshua is of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He kept the law perfectly for
his people. He satisfied God's justice on
our behalf. And what a savior he is. Now
the Holy Spirit here in Joshua 3 verse 7 defines for us something
of what it means to be magnified in the sight of the people. God
showed Israel that he was with Joshua the same as he was with
Moses. As the Lord was with Moses in
the dividing of the Red Sea, they would now see that he was
with Joshua in the crossing of the Jordan River. But what we
have here is much more, much, much more than just a declaration
of Joshua's leadership. This is a very clear picture
of the magnification of the heavenly Joshua before true Israel. That word magnify there, as you
know, means to increase. or to enlarge, and with the parting
of the waters of Jordan, the people of Israel will know for
certain, for a fact, that the role and the burden of leadership
is now being given by God to Joshua. And to all the elect,
to all the sheep in the church, God will reveal the Lord Jesus
Christ to be the one that they must follow. They must follow
and the one that must lead them into the promised land of heaven's
glory. Did you notice that verse seven
there says that they may know? What would they know? They would
know that as God was with Moses, that they would know that God
was with Joshua. Now Moses could not bring them
into the land of promise. We've talked about that several
times already, but Joshua could, and Joshua did. And this is something
that all God's people will be made to know, and it's God that
reveals it to us. God was with his holy law. He
was with Moses who represents the law, yet the law could never
save a sinner, not one. Why? Because it was, the scripture
says, weak through the flesh, and that being our flesh, we
can't keep the law perfectly, which is what God requires. This is only something that Christ,
our Joshua, could do, and we see that salvation is of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's our message. Salvation
is of the Lord. Now Christ's exaltation is something
that must be revealed and made known unto us by God Himself.
And eternal life is knowing Christ. I was thinking again today, that's
been on the front of our bulletin now for over 30 years, at least
30 years, John 17, 3. And this is life eternal. The
Lord himself tells us in that passage. This is eternal life. What's eternal life? That they
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast seen. It's not how much scripture you
know. It's the God of scripture you need to know. It's the savior
of the scriptures that we must know. Salvation, eternal life
is knowing and trusting Christ alone. And again, we must remind
ourselves while studying the Old Testament scriptures that
these things were written aforetime. In the Old Testament, they were
written aforetime for our learning. We don't study the Old Testament
Scriptures just so we can say that we have. It's for our learning. Our learning of what? Of Christ,
who is our comfort of the Scriptures. He is the Word of God, in which
we have hope, according to Romans 15.4. What is the believer's
hope? Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's my hope, that's your hope,
there is no other hope. Our Lord said, Moses wrote of
me, and he certainly did. Preaching to the two disciples
on the road to Emmaus. It says, beginning at Moses and
all the prophets, the Lord expounded, the Lord preached unto them and
all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. This is a
book about Christ. That's why we study it. And if
that's what our Lord preached, if that's what our Lord expounded,
then that's what we must preach. We must preach the things concerning
Christ. Oh, that that might be said of
me. It'd be fine if on my tombstone it said he preached Christ. That'd
be just fine and dandy with me. And that's what these verses
here are about. They're about the magnification,
the exaltation, and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
in verse 7, the Lord says to Joshua, this day, in the Scriptures,
God has placed an emphasis here on this particular day. What
happens on this day is like no other day. And that immediately
brings to mind God the Father's words to God the Son. In Psalm
chapter two, verse seven, he said, I will declare the decree
the Lord has said unto me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. For unto which of the angels
said he, that being God at any time, thou art my son, this day
I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a
father and he shall be to me a son. Hebrews 1.5. And then
the Lord also adds this, this day will I begin. this day will I begin. And this
is no doubt a reference to the earthly time and place where
God is going to bring to pass what He's purposed in eternity.
God always does that. God always brings to pass what
He's purposed in eternity. He does so in time. I think sometimes
we've And how can we understand such things? Eternity, and we're
bound by time here in this life, in this world. Christ was the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, but in the fullness
of time, Scripture says, God sent forth His Son, made of a
woman, made under the law, for what purpose? To redeem them
that were under the law. that we might receive the adoption
of sons. That's what this is about. That's
what this book is about. This is not something new. No,
not at all. This is something purposed of
old, yet newly revealed in time. This day mentioned in Joshua
chapter three gives us a beautiful picture of the Lord's earthly
ministry. And it's the beginning of Christ's
manifestation and the beginning of His magnification before the
people. Christ came into the world to
do what? To save sinners. And He shall save His people
from their sin. And God magnifies Him in doing
so. Now Christ's glory reaches the
pinnacle on Calvary's cross, and that was followed by His
death, by His burial, and by his resurrection and ascension
and for those things prove that God accepted his perfect work.
Now you think about that. If what Christ did on Calvary's
cross for His people and putting away their sin wasn't sufficient,
He would have never risen from the dead. The law would have
never been fulfilled. God's justice would never have
been satisfied. And you and I would remain lost.
But where is our Lord? He's sitting at the right hand
of God in majesty and glory. And that is proof to us that
God accepted His work and accepted us in Him. Moses the Law couldn't
save a single sinner, as I said, and that that law was weak through
our flesh. We couldn't provide that perfect
keeping of the law that God required. But Christ did. And He did it
for us. And He perfectly did. So God
sent Him His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh. And it's this that God glorified
His Son and will glorify Him again. Our Lord said this in
John 12, verse 28. He said, Father, glorify Thy
Name, And then there came a voice from heaven saying, I have both
glorified it and will glorify it again. God the Father glorified
Himself and He also glorified God the Son in the Lord's incarnation. He did it in the Lord's ministry.
He did it in His perfect obedience to the law. And God glorified
Him again in His sufferings and in His death. and in his resurrection,
setting him at his own right hand. Oh, if God would enable
us to see Christ seated on the right hand of God, we'd have
full, you'll have full confidence in that his work was accepted
and you're accepted in the beloved. Christ said, I finished the work
which thou gave us me to do and finish it he did. Christ's obedience
to the will of His Father and to the salvation of His people
by His finished work, it makes Him worthy of being magnified
and exalted and glorified. And then the Lord, we quoted
John 17, 3, but in verse 5 of John 17, it says, and now, O
Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self. with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was." Now this simply
means that Christ is man's one and only mediator, and there
is only one. Only one mediator between God
and man, the man Christ Jesus. If you and I have any hope of
reconciliation with God, it's going to be through this mediator,
because there's only one. He's the Savior with whom we
have to do. And God glorifies, sets Him in
His own right hand, crowning Him with glory and honor as a
man. Isn't that amazing? As God the
Son, He before occupied God's throne. But now, as the God-man,
He does so again. And that's how we know that God
accepted his work. And that's how we know that we
are accepted in Christ, the beloved. And that's what we see pictured
here in the magnification of Joshua. And I find it very interesting,
the wording of the Holy Spirit here in verse seven. It says,
Joshua was magnified in the sight of all Israel. in the sight of
all Israel. The Lord Jesus is not revealed
to all men and women. He's not. Just to those whom
God is pleased to reveal Him to. The world in general does
not see Christ. You know that as well as I do.
You don't have to talk to folks long. Someone may claim to be
religious, attend church, but you talk to them just for a minute
and it becomes very obvious that they've never seen the Lord Jesus
Christ of this book in His glory. Just have it. The world in general
doesn't see Christ, but He's revealed and seen in all His
magnificence by true Israel, His people. Like Peter, God's
people are blessed Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And the Lord Jesus said, blessed
are you, Simon bar Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to you. No, sir, it can't be revealed by a man. No, it
was revealed unto you by my Father. And our Lord Jesus said, no man
knoweth the Son, but the Father, and neither knoweth any man the
Father, save or except the Son, and to whomsoever the Son will
reveal Him. That's just so plain and so simple. If God doesn't reveal Christ
to you, He'll never be revealed to you. We have to be taught
of God. He's manifested and magnified
to those whom the Father has given him. And as the Lord was
with Moses, the Lord will be with Joshua. Joshua very well
illustrates that our Lord's earthly ministry was the end and fulfillment
of the law of Moses, just as Joshua proves that. Acts 13,
38 says this, let me read this to you. Be it known unto you,
therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, that's
speaking of Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
And by Him all that believe are justified from all things from
which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." The law
of Moses couldn't get it done. The law of Moses cannot bring
you into the land of promise. For Christ, Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Romans
10. Hebrews 10, nine says, then said
he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first,
the first covenant, the covenant of works, the covenant of the
law, that he may establish the second, that covenant of grace
and mercy found only in Christ. Now, in verse eight here at Joshua
three, we see that in Joshua, Christ is the head of the church,
and he's the leader of his people. And speaking to Joshua, God says,
and thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant.
Now, let me just interject here. What a picture of Christ and
his gospel this is. He says, saying, when ye are
come to the brink of the water of Jordan, now look at this,
Ye shall stand still in Jordan." The priests serve as a very reasonable
picture of God's preachers and God's servants who hold up Christ
and His finished work to the people. That's what we do in
preaching. We do our best to get ourselves out of the way.
And we point men and women, sinners, to Christ and say, look to Him
and live. Salvation is in Him and Him alone,
nowhere else. Look to Him. And this command is very clear, plain,
and instructive. The priests are to come to the
brink of the water of the River Jordan, symbolic of death in
Christ. And what are the people to do?
You shall stand still in Jordan. Oh, why is that so hard for us
to do? Stand still. Do you know what the phrase stand
still in the Hebrew language means? It means to present oneself.
How are we to present ourselves? How are we to present ourselves?
Still. Still. What does a sinner do
in order to be safe? They're to do nothing. They're
to stand still. Salvation is given with no moving and no working. Stand still. Everything the child
of God does, they do standing still in Jesus Christ. I remember as a young boy being
in a deer stand with my father. And you know how young boys are.
Always so rambunctious. Are we gonna see a deer, Daddy?
Are we gonna see a deer? And you know, he's getting frustrated.
And my dad said, you know, you gotta be still. You've got to
be still, you've got to be quiet. If you're moving around, you're
going to miss out on seeing. And oh, how that applies to seeing
the Lord Jesus. We live in a day where men tell
sinners to take a stand and do something for God. Good things
happen to movers and shakers. Are you a mover and a shaker?
Good things come to those who do something for Jesus. Onward,
Christian soldiers, marching on into war, we say. But there's
no war for us to fight. No, sir. The war's already over. There is no more war. It's finished. The conflict is over. It's finished. And Jesus Christ is Lord. Our Lord doesn't need anything
from us. The only need there is, is the one that we have of
Him. Now there is a need involved, but it's our need of Him, not
His need of us. We have need to stand still. Lord, help me to stand still. Stand still and be quiet, and
that's when we'll see the salvation of the Lord. We stand still bearing
the Ark of the Covenant. We stand still holding up Christ
as our offering for sin. We don't bear the burdens of
this world. We're in this world, but we're
not of the world. We don't bear the dead weight
of religion. We don't bear the burden of the
works of the law. No, sir. We bear the Ark of the
Covenant. We bear the Lord Jesus Christ.
We preach the Lord Jesus Christ. We bear the Word of God. He is
the Word of God. We stand still in Christ our
Lord. And what another beautiful picture
we have here. The beginning of Joshua's magnification
in the sight of the people takes place at Jordan. You think about
that. This is beautifully realized
when our heavenly Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, entered into
Jordan's waters to be baptized by John. John said, oh, I have
no need of being baptized for you. And he did. But you remember
what our Lord said? He said, we must fulfill all
righteousness. All righteousness must be fulfilled.
Baptize me. And this is the magnification
of King Jesus as He begins His earthly ministry. The nature
of His ministry is clearly revealed here. It's the ministry of substitution. Christ's baptism, as you very
well know, we talked about it some Sunday, it's symbolic of
His death. The death that He would die and
the death that all His people would die with Him. And it's
symbolic of being buried with Christ and risen with Him. And because of that, we are ascended
with Him. And brothers and sisters, the
more I study the Scriptures, the more I see that it comes
down to one thing and one thing only. What think ye of Christ? It comes down to Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And that's why I'm convinced
that the Apostle Paul said, I am determined not to know anything
among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. What do you
think of Him? What do you think of what He's
done for sinners? And it'll either mean everything
to you or it'll mean nothing. There's no in-between. In a day
where religion is trying to win the battle against evil and obtain
a righteousness by their own doing, folks just have no understanding
that the war against sin and death has already been won. It's
finished. He, the Lord Jesus, will swallow
up death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away
tears from off all faces. And the rebuke of his people
shall he take away from off all the earth, for the Lord has spoken
it. Isaiah 25a. The burden's been
lifted. The work's been finished. And
we stand still. And we rest in Christ. Death is swallowed up in what?
Victory. Victory. Every believing child
of God can rightly ask with confidence, O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's where
it is. I don't fear death. A child of God doesn't fear death.
Why? Because he has no victory over me. It's a promotion. It's
a departure. That's all. When our Lord said
it's finished, that's what He was talking about. Because of
Christ's finished work, death has no sting. The grave has no
victory over us. And when we're baptized as believers,
we're declaring that Christ fulfilled all righteousness for us by dying
in our place and us dying in Him. And we stand in Him. We stand still in Him. In baptism,
we declare that we stand still in Christ, who's our substitute,
our sacrifice, and our surety before God. We declare that we
rest in Him. And I mean to be repetitive.
There's no work for us to do. None. No work to do. That's why
we can stand still and rest. We can rest because there's no
work to be done. The work is finished. And the
second that our Lord came out of the waters of Jordan, symbolizing
His resurrection and our justification by it, that's when the magnifying
of His name began. That's when He started His ministry. You remember He went into the
wilderness. He was tempted of Satan. He fought that battle. He stood in our place there. He quoted the word of God, thus
saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord. Satan said, well, you could
call 10,000 angels if you wanted to, and you could do this and
you could do that. And he said, thus saith the Lord,
thus saith the Lord. And in Luke chapter four, when
our Lord came to his hometown, Nazareth, where he had been brought
up, the Scripture says. His custom was to go into the
synagogue on the Sabbath. And on that particular day, he
stood up to read, and he took the scroll of the writings of
Isaiah. It's found in chapter Isaiah
61, verses 1 and 2 of our Bible. And he read this. He said, The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty and freedom them that
are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." And as you
go through those verses there, you see yourself in all those
things. The believer does. I'm poor. He preached the gospel
to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Isn't that what we are? Brokenhearted. Preach deliverance to captives.
We're in bondage to our sin. We're sold under sin. We're recovering
a sight to the blind. We're blind. Set at liberty them
that are bruised, bruised by sin, bruised by the fall, dead. and trespasses in sin. And the
Lord closed the book and he gave it again to the minister and
he sat down. And the scripture says, the eyes
of all of them that were in that place were fastened upon him. And he began to say unto them,
this day, today, this is fulfilled in your ears. All the pictures
and types that pointed to the Messiah, the Savior of sinners,
the Lord Jesus Christ, had come to pass. That's what He said. Today, this is fulfilled in your
ears. Today, all these things are accomplished,
and I've accomplished them for you. The one whom God had promised
would come, had come. Jesus Christ is the mystery of
godliness. Jesus Christ is God manifest
in the flesh. God is pleased with His Son and
nothing else. And that's why you and I must
be found in Him. And until God reveals to us that
very thing, we must stand still. And then we continue to stand
still. And if we don't, we'll never have any peace or rest.
None. We'll continue to work. We'll
continue to do. Stand still. That phrase, stand
still, is used seven times in the Bible, and in most instances,
in conjunction with salvation, redemption, and deliverance.
And let me just give you a couple examples. In Exodus chapter 14.
God had delivered Israel out of Egyptian bondage, you know
the story well. They hear the thundering of Pharaoh's
chariots behind them. And there's nothing but water
in front of them, the Red Sea. And I'm sure they're thinking,
what are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? And it's
then that they hear a voice that cries, it's the voice of Moses,
and he says, fear ye not, stand still. and see the salvation
of the Lord, which He will show you today. For the Egyptians whom you have
seen today, you shall see them again no more, forever." Moses
said, the Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace.
What does it mean to hold your peace? It means to be quiet and
be still. Now my mother used to, She didn't
put it quite that nicely. Hold your peace, young man. She
said, shut up and be quiet. What was the saying that you
probably remember? Children to be seen and not heard
or something like that. Shut your mouth. Oh, if we could
just learn to stand still and be quiet. The Egyptians, representing
the sin that plagued us all the days of our life, will plague
you no more, Moses said. What must you do to be saved?
Stand still and see Christ. He's the salvation of the Lord.
Look to Him and Him alone. Look to Jesus Christ and live. And secondly, we must stand still
to be reasoned with by the preaching of the Gospel. 2 Samuel 12, verse 6, Samuel the
prophet said to the people, it is the Lord that advanced Moses
and Aaron. All that that happened in Israel's
deliverance out of Egyptian bondage, that was the Lord. It was the
Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron. It was the Lord that worked
through them. They were just instruments. That's
all any preacher is, just an instrument by which you receive
the word of the gospel. He said, The Lord advanced Moses
and Aaron and brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt. Friends,
salvation is of the Lord. And Samuel went on to say, Now
therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord
of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which He did to you
and to your fathers. Salvation. is to be given the
free gift of God's perfect righteousness in Christ. The very righteousness
that the believer has is the very righteousness of God Himself. That's what He said there. He
said, Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before
the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord. Not you. We can't do a righteous act.
All our righteousness is what? Filthy rags. And when we preach
the gospel, is that not what we're doing? We're reasoning
with men. Come let us reason together, God said. Though it
is God that must cause a sinner to see and hear, we reason with
men and women to see that they have no righteousness of their
own. We reason that their righteousness is just what I said, filthy rags. We reason that the only righteousness
that God accepts is the very righteousness of God in Christ. Isaiah said, come now and let
us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool. And some believe it and some
don't. Those that believe it, they stand
still and they rest in His finished work. Thirdly, we must stand
still and consider some things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
Job 37, 14. Stand still and consider the
wondrous works of God. You've got to stand still. Paul told Timothy, he said, consider
what I say and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
Stand still. Our Lord said, consider the lilies.
Shall God not clothe you? Consider the ravens. Shall God
not feed you? We need to stand still and consider
some things concerning our Lord and Savior. The Lord told Joshua,
when you come to the brink of the water of Jordan, you shall
stand still. Now here's an oxymoron for you.
You know what that is? Well, look it up. When you come
to the brink of the water of Jordan, you shall stand still. We must stand still in order
to come. What? Yeah. We must stand still
in order to come. Works religion says work, move,
do, don't do, work some more, don't do some more, do some more,
do this and do that and don't do this and do that. But the
good news of the gospel says, stand still. Stand still. Come without moving a muscle.
How do you do that? That's an oxymoron. Come while standing still. This is the declaration of Christ's
propitiation. That's exactly what the gospel
is. It's the declaration of Christ's satisfaction of all that God
requires of you. Christ satisfied it all in the
eyes of God. There's nothing for you to do. Christ has done it. Oh, I never
get tired of hearing that. I don't. Yet it pleases the Lord
to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. when
thou shalt make His soul an offering for my sin. He shall see His
Christ see. He shall prolong His Christ's
days. And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in His Christ's hand. He shall see the travail
of His Christ's soul and shall be satisfied. By His knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many For he shall bear there
your and my iniquities." He did it all, and we received the total
benefit of it. It's substitution, isn't it?
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord. I'll put my laws into their hearts
and in their minds will I write them. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now where remission of these
is, there's no more offering. There's no more doing. There's
no more keeping. No more offering for sin. Just
stand still and rest. What a marvelous beginning this
is to a new beginning. We talked about that new beginning
a couple weeks ago. Christ is magnified above all
in the sight of His people. Isn't that right? And He is,
isn't it? Oh, what a day this is. Look
over... Let me finish by showing you
this. Look over at chapter 4, verse
14. Chapter 4, verse 14. It says, on that day, and oh
what a day it was, the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel,
and they feared. Now that word means revered.
They respected him as they feared, revered, and respected Moses
all the days of his life. Friends, God has made the Lord
Jesus great and honorable in the sight of all His elect people. Now, there are some in this world
that don't see Christ, and they don't mean it. He doesn't mean
anything to them. But to the child of God, He's everything.
He means everything. Doesn't He mean everything to
you? Sure He does. He's your only hope of redemption.
He's your only means of salvation. And the child of God loves Christ,
and He reveres Christ, and strives to obey Christ. Sure, we fall
short. Sure, sure. We all come short
of the glory of God. We all fall short. We all fall
in fail. But we love the Lord, and we
revere Him, and we do all we can to obey Him all the days
of our life. By the way, which never ends.
What a Savior. And what a gospel we have. May
God enable us to believe it as we are.